Both Mal and Ben had matching helmets as Ben drove Mal outwards into the first while Mal had her hands wrapped around the boy's waist staring into forest with awe.
Ben had took Mal into a forest trail where there were wooden bridges way up high in the canopy and the boy and girl stroud together as they spoke.
"Tell me something about yourself that you've never told anyone else?" Ben asked curiously. "Erm" Mal replied as she raked through her mind to find something that everyone at Auradon and of course the isle didn't know about her.
"My middle name...is Bertha!" Mal said in a still tone, making sure that Ben knew she hated the name but was being entirely serious.
"Bertha?" Ben said back to her.
"Yeah...it's just my mom doing what she does best...being really, really evil" Mal said jokingly and the two kids laughed. There was a moment of silence between the two as they stopped in the middle of the bridge and looked down over the canopy, to a waterfall.
"Mines Florian" Ben said ending the silence.
"Florian?" Mal said mimicking what Ben had done to her "how royal" she finished as the two laughed and began walking once more. Ten minutes later Ben had led Mal downwards to the trail and they came to small path that led off the road. The prince had told her to close her eyes and take his hands asking her to be careful where she stepped. He led her down a couple of steps and then told her to open her eyes. She did reluctantly, in a small clearing there was an old Greek looking monolith that patches of ivy had taken root. The clearing was surrounding but water that shone like crystals which had an elegant yellow glow above it. It was only a small area of water that was kept secret by towering rocks that surrounding it on all side apart from the small path that led off road to here. In the middle of the monolith structure was a small blue blanket which had a basket and small treats on tiny different plates. Mal had never seen anything like it, nothing so beautiful she thought. The sight almost took her breath away as she turned her head back to Ben to smile at his effort.
Mal began sucking each finger trying to get every last morsel of donut in her mouth that she had just ate. She was lightly perched on one of the corners of the blanket as Ben lay opposite her as he watched her eat.
"Is this your first time, I take it?" He asked her. She used her hands to gesture that she was going to answer just as soon as she had swallowed the treat that was in her mouth, once it was down she replied "we don't really date on the isle, it's more like...gang activity? You know". Ben laughed at the comment but Mal was being serious.
"I meant...is this your first time eating a jelly donut? He said pointing the crumbs that were all down the pretty dress that Evie had sewn for her. Mal took a thumb that she had been sucking to get the sugar from the donut off and asked "is it bad?" With a slight glint of embarrassment. Ben balanced on one elbow and then sat up as he brought his hand to Mal's face. He placed his thumb on her lip and he softly wiped away small crumbs that she didn't even realised were there, his touch was so soft he thought to herself, so gentle and in that moment she wondered how can a man that is so caring and gentle be born from a man that was once called a beast. She lipped her lips after he removed his hands and laughed "can't take me anywhere i guess" she said sarcastically.
"You know I've down all the taking its your turn" Ben said continuing the dating rhetoric that Mal was still trying to keep up with.
"I really don't know that much about you? Tell me something?" He said motivating her to converse. Mal blew out a long breath of air, actually as she thought about it, it was true all Ben had actually knew was what Mal's mother had done and now that her middle name was Bertha...first impressions be damned.
"Well...I'm sixteen, I'm an only child and...I've only ever lived in once place?" Mal knew that she had just said one of the most boring thing that Ben had probably just heard and her face had also said that too. But Ben wasn't swayed "me too!" He cheered "see we have so much in common already?" That made Mal smile.
"Trust me, we do not" Mal said playfully, but the comment did run an uneasy truth for both kids, Ben had grown up in a princely home with a king and a queen for parents and role models and Mal had grown up in isolation on the isle, the only role models she knew where the stuff of nightmares in Auradons children's dreams.
"And now you are going to be king?" Mal said following the rhetoric that Ben had now seemed to abandon. He looked up at her with an uneasy smile.
"Yeah..." he replied.
"What?"
Ben looked at Mal and then averted his eyes as he wrestled with a thought that had clearly been in his mind for a while.
"A crown doesn't make you a king?" He said finally.
"Well..it kinda does?" Mal said jokingly. They both smiled and Ben through his laughter said "no..." as he put his head down, lifting it again with a more curious and light hearted face "...your mother, is mistress of evil and I've got the poster parents for goodness" Ben said, but he didn't look at Mal when he was saying it. Almost as if he was also trying to comprehend what he was saying in that moment, as Mal had been doing ever since she stepped foot in Auradon.
"But we're not automatically like them? We get to choice who we are going to be? And right now I can look into your eyes and I can tell you're not evil. I can see it" Ben said as Mal carefully watched him with a tilted head, another silence began as neither knew what to say in that moment. Ben looked over at the water and said "cmon, lets go for a swim?".
Mal almost chocked, "what like right now?" She said surprised. "Yeah why not?" Ben replied as he began unbuttoning the blue shirt that he was wearing.
"I think I'm just going to stay here" Mal said as she tried to do anything to stay where she was and not get wet.
"Oh no, cmon" Ben urged her as he held up his hand to lift her up. Mal rejected the hand in place for a strawberry.
"No, I think I'm just going to stay here and try a strawberry" she said before popping a full strawberry into her mouth and being pleasantly surprised by the taste, it was wonderful. She picked up another as she tucked in with immense pleasure as Ben walked off and disappears behind some trees. He reappeared a few minutes later on top of one of the rocks that surrounded the small pool, shirtless and in blue shorts with small golden imprints on them, Mal put the two strawberries that she had not yet eaten yet down and stood up to face him. She did and rested her hand on one of the stone pillars and he waved at her which she returned.
"Are those little crowns on your shorts" she yelled putting her hands at each side of her mouth as she did. He rubbed his hands on the shorts he was wearing and embarrassingly replied "maybe" with a smile. Mal giggled and Mal waved. Ben stood for a minute as he stared down the rock face as it entered the water further down and as he was about to jump he roared which echoed off the rocks walls and made the sound louder. Then he jumped and plunged into the water with a splash as she laughed and cheered as he did.
If Only performance takes place.
Mal sat at the waters edge looking into the clear water. She lifted her head up and looked out over the water. The water was still, no ripples flowed through it. She then realised that Ben was no where to be seen. Skimming the water again for signs again she called for him "Ben?". She waited a moment for him to answer. She turned around and took a look behind her making sure he wasn't playing any games and yelled louder this time, "Ben?". Mal stood up in hast and screamed his name "Ben!" and then waited a few seconds before not even thinking and jumped in the water. The water was warm as she jumped in and felt the water leak into her boots, as she continued to get deep she felt her clothes getting heavy and the water becoming more difficult to swim through. In a panic Mal began to flail her arms and legs trying to keep afloat, before she even realised it was happened she was floating again. Someone was holding her under the water, it was Ben. He lifted his wet head up and his brown hair was slicked back as he came out of the water, he held her in his arms as he carried her through the water and back to the stone structure where they started. He sat her down as she coughed, once she was done she pushed his arm, "You scared me!" She said with a fury in her voice.
"You can't swim?" Ben asked pointing back to the deep water he had just rescued Mal from. "No?!" She raged as she held her hand up in anger.
"You live on an island?" Ben stated confused.
"Yeah with a barrier around it? Remember?"
"And you still tried to save me" Ben said in an endearingly soft tone.
"Yes, and do you thank me..no all I get is soaking wet!" Mal yelled as she touched the bottom of her dress because she knew Evie would kill her now that she's ruined her dress.
"Oh and this fancy rock?" Ben said as he held a stone up to Mal. It was white crystal that emitted a glow from it.
"Here it's yours" he said passing it to her as she held it with an angry look still in her eyes "Male a wish and throw it back in the lake". Mal aggressively threw the rock into water with a large splash, she then stood up and walked away over back to the picnic cloth, she now noticed how cold it was with wet clothes still on and began to shiver. Ben followed her out of the water and after quickly drying his hair with a small towel he trapped his tourney jumper and placed it softly around her shoulders, she was still angry but she fell into the warmth of the dry clothes that he lay around her and her face grew a softer expression. Mal sat down on the cloth and so did Ben. There was a silence now with a few short breaths from Mal as she warmed up. As the silence continued and Mal could feel Bens eyes on her as she looked in the other direction, Ben lifted his arm and began to touch Mal's hair, as he continued to fell through her wet purple curls her body relaxed more and more then she turned to him and silently but contently looked at him.
"Mal.. I told you that I loved you? What about you...do you love me?" Ben asked looking down at the ground and back to Mal. Mal pondered the thought for a second. Did Mal love him she thought, could Mal love him, she eventually reached the truth and as she answered she looked away from him.
"I- I don't know what Love feels like".
She couldn't look at him she stared off into distance, she felt his hand on her chin and the cold ring that sat on his middle finger on her skin. He turned her head back so that they were looking at each other again. Ben looked right into Mal's eyes and said softly
"Maybe I could teach you?".
